TALiNT International October 2021

October 2021

The Digital Evolution How will tech enable the Great Flourishing’?

Plus... TIARA Triumph: Profiling the Talent Tech Star & Talent Acquisition Award Winners

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TALiNT International October 2021

3 Leader

The Great Flourishing As technology is finally enabling us all to change where, how and why we work, the desire for connection and a sense of belonging are becoming more important in the workforce to accommodate what Andrew calls the ‘great flourishing’, as people manage their careers and employers around their lives, passions and ambitions.

The Talint Partners’ TIARA Awards programme has been in full swing over the last six weeks. With the spectacular London skyline in the background, rooms filled with industry leaders and professionals, in-person ceremonies made a comeback for the first time in 18 months. As a new part of the TALiNT Partners team, attending these events has afforded me a rather fun way of immersing myself in the business and the industry – far more exciting than sitting at my kitchen table in trackie bottoms and a collared shirt onboarding into a company with people I’d only met through a screen! The Awards ceremonies were met with such wonderful enthusiasm, and it didn’t take long for all attendees to feel that pre-pandemic social connection we’ve all sorely missed. The entries to the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards (held on 10th September) and the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards (held on 22nd September) were outstanding and impressed the judges. During a tumultuous pandemic, this year’s finalists showed remarkable innovation, deep compassion for their people and demonstrated a desire to elevate their industries and truly drive change for the better. In this issue, every winner for each awards ceremony has been deservedly profiled in our TIARA Awards supplement, which starts on page 27 so do take a look for inspiration. Advancement in technology continues to influence the hiring landscape. Andrew Spence, our workforce futurist in (virtual) residence, believes that a new infrastructure of work is being built which will gradually drag the job market into the next digital age. There’s talk of the replacement of CVs with digital wallets and AI that effectively supports work-match platforms. While we move through inevitable digital change and shift in employee expectations, employers will need

Debbie Walton Editor TALiNT International

It’s as if the pandemic has turned up the volume of employee voices shouting for flexibility, autonomy and a sense of belonging - but increasingly side hussles and plurality much earlier in their careers. How does that fit into your workforce strategy?

The pandemic has turned up the volume of employee voices shouting for flexibility, autonomy and a sense of belonging – but also side hussles and plurality earlier in their careers.

About TALiNT Partners TALiNT Partners provides insight, content, connections and strategic support to the world’s recruitment & talent acquisition leaders. We work hard to connect, collaborate and concentrate our efforts to ensure our events, experiences, consultancy and media solutions offer the best support for the talent industry. Published by Talent Intelligence Partners Ltd Upper Ground Floor 18 Farnham Road Guildford Surrey GU1 4XA www.talintpartners.com Editorial: debbie@talintpartners.com News & features: debbie@talintpartners.com Advertising & Sponsorship: andy@talintpartners.com

TALiNT International October 2021

4 Contents

Contributors

10 News analysis

10 Employers brace for ‘revenge resignations’ 11 Half of workers close to burnout 12 Older workers plan to work longer 13 Employees unhappier than ever

15 Data-driven Diversity

US talent leaders debate the drivers, barriers & opportunities of DE&I

Nicola Collings, Deutsche Bank P15

Tom Lakin, Resource Solutions P16

Kevin Barrow, Osborne Clarke P18

Anoushka Perera, Page Outsourcing P19

Doug Rode, Page Group P19

Zoe Jeanes, Debut P22

Ruth South, Cap Gemini P22

Andrew Spence, Workforce Futurist P24

Alex Evans, TALiNT Partners P31

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners P54

18 Risk and Reward

Making RPO more profitable for recruiters

21 Emerging Talent

Playing the long game with new recruits

24 Internet of Value

The next phase in the digital work evolution

29 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards

Shining a light on the best HR & Recruitment Tech solutions and this year’s winners

54 TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards

Recognising resilience, innovation & partnership at the inaugural TA Awards

76 TALiNT Talk

The Great Resignation or the Great Retention?

Picture credits: Unsplash, Canva Cover: Canva Disclaimer: This publication has been prepared for the exclusive use and benefit of the readers of TALiNT International and other contacts of TALiNT Partners and is for information purposes only. Unless we provide express prior written consent, no part of this publication should be reproduced, distributed, or communicated to any third party. You must not rely on the information in this publication as an alternative to advice from an appropriately qualified professional. In no event shall TALiNT Partners or any of those contributing to this publication be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence, or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the contents of this publication. © Talent Intelligence Partners

TALiNT International October 2021

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6 TALiNT Scene Back to our favourite venues in September with an agency leader dinner at the Ham Yard Hotel, conferences for heads of TA and the recruitment sectors best leaders at the Kings Fund, and the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards at the IET, Savoy Place... 16th September – TALiNT PointSix co-hosted a dinner with Access Recruitment at the stunning Ham Yard Hotel for 30 staffing and RPO leaders on the topic of how to manage their own talent challenges attended by CEOs and senior execs from members and market leaders including Sanderson plc, NHS Professionals, Goodman Masson, Venn Group, Randstad Sourceright, Rullion, PeopleScout, Oyster Partnership & MSI Group.

17th September – Our annual Emerging Talent summit took place at the Kings Fund to explore post-pandemic trends, tactics and priorities for engaging Gen Z. It brought together HR directors and heads of TA for leading employers including Amazon, Bloomberg, Foxtons, Manchester United, Ocado Group, Philips and The Gym Group. Read our review from page 21.

TALiNT International October 2021

7 22nd September – The TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards brought together 160 leaders to celebrate excellence and innovation at the IET, Savoy Place in London. Read our review and winner profiles from page 56.

5th October – The World Leaders in Recruitment conference brought together 80 leaders at the Kings Fund in London to debate where technology is having the greatest impact on growth and how to manage post-pandemic talent challenges. Supported by Bullhorn, Introhive, Odro and SourceBreaker, the speaker panel included keynotes from Mark Cahill, MD of ManpowerGroup and Steve Ingham, CEO of PageGRoup alongside workforce futurist Andrew Spence and leaders from Cpl, RGF Staffing, Gattaca, nGage, Amoria Bond, LinkedIn, Staffing360 Solutions and Twenty20 Capital.

TALiNT International October 2021

8 Talent Tech Star Q&A

The pursuit of happiness, wellbeing… and growth SourceBreaker won the Best Talent Tech Company to Work For award at the 2020 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards and were shortlisted for this year’s Awards in the same category. We caught up with SourceBreaker Founder Steve Beckitt and Chief Revenue Officer Adam Dale to see how the company had adapted to changing client and employee expectations over the last year. TALiNT INTERNATIONAL: SourceBreaker was crowned the Best Talent Tech Company to Work for at the 2020 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards and attributed its success to an innovation culture driven by a diverse, autonomous team with a high-performance mindset. How has the pandemic impacted the culture at SourceBreaker, and what innovations or improvements are you most proud of from the last 12 months? SOURCEBREAKER: The pandemic forced us to completely rethink staff engagement. We’ve always been an incredibly sociable business so being locked in our homes naturally made that more difficult! In place of physical meetups, we ran several virtual socials including cocktail making, arts and craft classes, quizzes, and a lot more. That aside, we implemented a more flexible working policy, brought in spot holidays and time off and worked hard to make sure the team knew that we would be supportive, aware that life was tougher for everyone than ever before and we’d all need more flexibility to manage home life and our general wellbeing. Now that we’re back in the office, we’ve been able to bring back a lot of the social side, but with a far more flexible approach as many of the

TALiNT International October 2021

team are working far more remotely now. TI: SourceBreaker has also been recognised by the Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For. Why are awards like this important to you? By Debbie Walton, Editor, TALiNTPartners

First and foremost, we strongly believe that work should be an enjoyable place to be. We spend most of our waking lives at work, so you may as well enjoy it! A lot of the time, businesses sacrifice employee happiness and wellbeing in the pursuit of growth. We’re out to prove that you can scale a business rapidly while at the same time loving what you do. On top of that, it naturally makes hiring and growing easier when you’re able to demonstrate that you’re truly committed to helping your team enjoy their work and fast track their careers. TI: SourceBreaker has grown quickly, transitioning from start-up to scale-up, substantially expanding its client base. How have you maintained your innovation culture and service levels? SB: With most of us having come from a recruitment background, we’d been on the receiving end of new products and seen what worked and what didn’t in terms of service levels. In short, recruiters need a lot of attention to ensure effective adoption of technology, so we knew we’d need to invest heavily in our customer success team. On top of that, as a premium product, we felt it was critical that every element of the business represented that positioning and wanted to be famous for the best service in the industry. While there’s always room to improve, we hope that a significant majority of customers would approve of the

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From left to right: Adam Dale, Chief Revenue Officer, SourceBreaker and Steve Beckitt, Founder, SourceBreaker

service level they receive. In terms of innovation, we try and set the business up in a way that encourages innovation. For one, we aren’t afraid to try new things and fail. To maintain an innovative culture, it’s important that people feel comfortable putting forward new ideas. I’d encourage anyone looking to scale a business or create an innovation culture to read Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. The focus of the book is on your attitude to failure and learning from your mistakes. The thinking in the book underpins the way we run the business and we believe maintains that culture of innovation, which is critical to staying ahead. TI: SourceBreaker launched a webinar series on how to maximise ROI on talent tech with partners including Hinterview, Jobadder and Volcanic. Why did you decide to run these with partners and what were the top three recommendations from the series? SB: We decided to run this webinar series with partners as we have many conversations with industry suppliers all the time to work out key challenges that are happening within the industry; and one of the things we found was that a lot of recruitment agencies weren’t making the most of their recruitment technology purchases due to poor implementation and not driving it internally.

“Integration is absolutely the way forward. There are enormous productivity gains to be had.”

So rather than just sitting around having a beer and moaning about recruitment agencies, we thought we’d act and create a webinar series (and now an eBook!) that gives them the actionable insights they need to make sure that their tech purchases get the very best return on investment. TI: The accelerated adoption of talent tech has been a key trend throughout the pandemic. Is integration the key focus going forward? Why, and what are the implications for the talent tech sector? SB: Integration is absolutely the way forward. There are enormous productivity gains to be had from having your technology stack seamlessly interact with one another. For one, it typically removes an enormous amount of manual work like adding CVs to a CRM system. Equally, it will reduce the amount of actions your fee earners have to take to do their job and increase the ROI from each of your tech suppliers because the products will typically be used more effectively, as it doesn’t rely on every user acting diligently to benefit from the technology. The implications for the talent tech sector are that you need to have a real focus on building excellent integrations with tech partners, particularly CRM and ATSs as these tend to be the foundational systems on which recruitment businesses and functions are run. For those CRMs or technologies that don’t prioritise integrations, they will likely lose out to competitors who have done, as the efficiency gains are so significant.

TALiNT International October 2021

10 News analysis

Employers brace for ‘revenge resignations’ The furlough scheme came to an end in the UK last month, just a few weeks after it was revealed by the ONS that job vacancies had risen to over a million for the first time since records began in 2001. The shift to a candidate’s market has led to growing fears amongst employers that they will lose talent to competitors, with recent surveys confirming their fears. The latest research from CV-Library based on responses from 1,500 professionals found that 74.6% won’t be put off looking for a new job in October and aren’t fearful of any increased competition for roles. “Only time will tell what the true impact of the end of the furlough scheme will be,” said Lee Biggins, CEO and founder of CV-Library. “As for any redundancies that will now arise, it would be naive to think that the record number of job vacancies in the UK right now are the simple solution, not with the huge skills shortages across such a breadth of sectors. The fact job losses didn’t make the top 5 list of concerns for UK professionals shows the extent of the market swing in candidates’ favour.” The great temptation This comes off the back of research from Reed.co.uk which found that

almost three-quarters of Britains are actively looking for a new job or are open to opportunities. The survey, which canvassed 2,000 employers, suggests they will need to adapt their offering to align with new employee priorities that have been shaped by the pandemic. With the ONS confirming that average pay growth jumped to 8.8% across the UK for the three months between April and June 2021, it’s unsurprising that salaries remain a top driver for 39%. Flexible working hours is also at the top of the list followed by more annual leave (25%), a promotion (21%), and increased training and development opportunities (18%).

Following LinkedIn’s recent research highlighting 6.8 times the number of recruitment roles posted on its site in June compared to the same time last year, is the Great Resignation spreading to the staffing sector? “There is a lot of potential for ‘revenge resignation’ for all those who were put on furlough through successive lockdowns, in the wider economy but particularly in recruitment, but it’s less likely to impact employers who offer flexibility and authenticity with a client-centric culture,” said Tim Cook, Group CEO of nGage, who will be speaking on this topic at the World Leaders in Recruitment conference on 5th October.

74.6%

39%

6.8x

won’t be put off looking for a new job

Consider salary as a top driver for changing job

- CV Library

- ONS

more recruitment roles posted on LinkedIn in June 2021 compared to June 2020 - LinkedIn

TALiNT International October 2021

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Half of workers are ‘close to burnout’ The Healthier Nation Index published by Nuffield Health highlights that more employees are demanding that their employers take more responsibility for their physical and mental wellbeing.

International. “Offering that support through wellbeing seminars, mental health and wellbeing training or even mental health support where staff can talk to a specialist can make a significant difference to employees.”

In a survey of 8,000 workers, 54% said that work was having a negative impact on their mental health; 46% believe free health checks for all staff should be provided by employers; and 21% believed employers should implement mandatory reporting on their physical and wellbeing initiatives.

Following Nike’s recent decision to give their head office employees a week’s holiday in support of their mental health, Suzanne Staunton, Employment Partner at JMW Solicitors, said: “Anecdotally, over the past 12 months, we saw that number of employers have given staff a day or two additional mental health days or an extra day holiday.

“Mandatory reporting is a great way for organisations to take more responsibility for their employees,” said Darren Hockley, MD at DeltaNet

Those employers who implemented such schemes reported an increase in morale and productivity.”

Gen Z will take a pay cut to work from home A survey by Hitachi Capital UK has revealed that over a quarter of office workers are willing to take an 8% cut in pay to switch to permanent home working, with 2% prepared to forgo 20% of their salary to work from home permanently. Those earning less than £40,000 per annum are most willing to accept a pay cut to work from home compared to 20% of those earning over £40,000. Millennials are most likely to consider taking a pay cut (35%), followed by over 55s (25%) and 45 – 54-year-olds (24%) if it meant the reduction was less than their usual travel spend and they were given increased flexibility by their employer.

News in brief Pay-rolled staff at pre-pandemic level New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicated a monthly increase of 241,000 to 29.1 million in August, with the number of job vacancies in the three months leading up to this rising to above one million. While the overall unemployment rate fell from 4.7% to 4.6% in the three months to July, this is against the backdrop of acute talent shortages. Various trade bodies, including the British Chambers of Commerce, blamed Brexit and Covid for declines in labour supply and warned that ‘the end of furlough is unlikely to be a silver bullet to the ongoing shortages’. Recruitment costs rise by 75% Three quarters of hiring managers have reported that the cost of recruiting workers has increased since January this year according to talent sourcing specialist, Talent.com. “Over half (57%) of recruiters have turned to job boards and job aggregators to source candidates amidst a skills shortage, so investment in these two areas is likely to have increased,” said Noura Dadzie – VP Sales UK & International Markets at Talent.com. “We do know from our conversations with hirers that many are also moving funds into increasingly sophisticated tech tools to help them look outside of the usual channels to find talent.” 79% of businesses ‘likely to be investigated’ A new report by FTI Consulting indicates that more companies are coming under scrutiny for their business practises and behaviour. The top three areas of investigation worries are: business conduct and the treatment of customers; sustainability and ESG practices; and the relationship with public bodies and government contracts. It found that 75% of companies surveyed suffered a cyberattack in the past 12 months, with phishing attacks among the most prevalent type with 25% experiencing a loss of customer or patient data, and a further 23% reporting a loss of third-party information.

TALiNT International October 2021

12 News analysis

Hybrid has hampered young careers New research from LinkedIn found that that 87% of UK business leaders have noticed a “developmental dip” in young workers due to remote onboarding and long periods working from home during the pandemic. The study surveyed 250 UK based C-level executives from companies with 1,000+ employees and an annual turnover of £250m+. Business leaders said the key development experiences that young people have missed out on during the pandemic include “learning by osmosis” from being around more experienced colleagues (36%), developing their essential soft skills (36%), and building professional networks (37%). This was borne out by a complementary survey of young professionals, with 69% of those aged 16 – 34 saying their professional learning experience has been impacted by the pandemic; 71% saying they have forgotten how to conduct themselves in an office environment; and 84% feeling out of practice when it comes to office life - especially when it comes to giving

69%

aged 16 - 34 say their professional learning experience has been impacted by the pandemic presentations (29%) and speaking to customers and/ or clients (34%). Making hybrid work Business leaders said that, for hybrid working to be a success, collaboration (59%) and communication (57%) are the two most important skills employees need. Nearly half (49%) of leaders say working closely with experienced team members is the

best way for young people to catch up and build these soft skills. “To help young people develop the skills they need to succeed, companies must understand where the skills gaps are, introduce mentoring schemes and bolster learning experiences that cater for a hybrid workforce to help younger workers get back on track,” said Janine Chamberlin, UK Country Manager at LinkedIn.

Why older workers are working longer A new study has found that 10% of over 70s are choosing to go back to work or delay retirement as a result of the pandemic – which could add as much as £1.8billion to the UK economy each year.

“It’s vital, as we unlock from the pandemic, that we continue to reappraise how we view the great contribution of people over 70 to our culture and economy,” said Will Bax, CEO of Retirement Villages Group.

The ‘Back on Track’ study by Retirement Villages Group indicates that 36% of over 70s have spent the last 16 months reflecting on their life goals and ‘have an increased desire to make up for lost time in both their personal and professional lives’.

“Independent, positive ageing matters – not only to the long-term health and wellbeing of individuals, by keeping people out of hospitals and care homes for longer – but also to our society which is enriched by older people playing an active part.”

Among those that plan to go back to work, the main motive for 52% is to boost their finances.

52% of older workers say their main motive to keep working is to boost their finances

TALiNT International October 2021

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Why employees are ‘unhappier than ever’ A survey of 23,105 workers across the UK, US, Germany, Benelux and the Nordics found that over half feel undervalued (56%) and uninformed – with 38% demanding that employers ‘create better lines of communication between executives and employees’. The research by Firstup, a digital employee experience company, cited lack of communication from leadership as a main contributing factor to unhappy employees with almost a quarter of respondents agreeing that better communication will lead to increased productivity and work satisfaction. “Business, HR and Internal Comms leaders must act now to stem this

workforce dissatisfaction and engage their teams with personalised information that helps them do their best work,” said Nicole Alvino, founder and CSO of Firstup. Out of sight... Remote workers seem to feel these complaints most keenly, with a growing tension between desk based and deskless workers. It found that 25% of respondents felt they get more attention from their employer when they are physically at the office; only 30% of deskless workers think that their employers listen to them; and 39% of desk-based workers felt that their deskless colleagues could learn from them about ‘how to communicate with colleagues’ and ‘how to work as a team’.

Top nations for women workers Research from William Russell has revealed the top ten most empowering countries around the world for women to live and work – and the UK did not make the list. To rank them, William Russell created the Female Empowerment Score based on: Gender Pay Gap, the proportion of women who achieve tertiary education, the length of paid maternity leave, and female representation in government. Iceland topped the list with a female empowerment score of 7.64, with more than half of adult women having achieved tertiary education such as a university degree. Finland took second place with a score of 7.62 based on 50% of all ministerial positions being occupied by women. Ireland was third (7.22) for a relatively low gender wage gap of 7.99% and a very competitive 182 days of paid maternity leave for new mothers.

The research revealed that the average gender wage gap around the world is 28% and Slovakia gives the most paid maternity leave (238 days). The percentage of women achieving tertiary education in the UK (47.7%) is higher than the global average (40.7%) but Israel is top with 88%.

News in brief Yorkshire best for hybrid workers Gazprom Energy has ranked each major UK city on cost of living, wellbeing (average ratings of life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety), commuting time (minutes), average salary (£), average internet speed (mbps), and coffee shops per capita to create a Hybrid Working Score out of 100. York is the best city for hybrid working (64/100) for a moderate cost of living and a lower average commute. Yorkshire has the fastest average internet speed overall, at 85 Mbps, but Hull and St Albans have the highest average internet speeds in the country (both 138 Mbps). Luton has best business survival rate By analysing average download speeds, business birth and death rates, five-year survival rates, office renting costs, and average working productivity across the nation, Fasthosts has revealed the top 15 cities for start-ups. With an overall index score of 3.375, Luton has the best rates of production, office prices, and business survival rates out of any other UK city. Reading came second with the highest productivity rate and Edinburgh narrowly outperformed Central London as the best city for overall enterprise opportunities to take fourth place after Nottingham. 88m working days lost to financial stress A new study from Borofree, conducted online by YouGov, has revealed that 83% of HR decision makers will be prioritising plans to improve employee productivity over the next year and 23% of companies are looking to introduce new or improved health and wellness benefits for employees to improve morale and productivity over the next two years. However, despite the fact that an average of 3.05 working days were taken off due to the financial stress felt by employees over the last year, only 12% of HR leaders plan to offer personal finance coaching within the next two years.

TALiNT International October 2021

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TALiNT International October 2021

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15 US Talent Solutions

Data driven diversity Lessons from the US on how talent solutions providers are helping clients to reduce bias & promote DE&I The pandemic has provided a unique opportunity for business transformation. In many organisations, it has accelerated talent acquisition initiatives to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. As the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda becomes more complex, there are huge questions around how to create meaningful change. TALiNT Partners and global RPO Resource Solutions recently held a roundtable attended by a select group of US talent leaders to discuss how leading companies in North America are dealing with these challenges, co-hosted by TALiNT Partners Managing Director Ken Brotherston, with Tom Lakin, Director of Innovation and Diverse Hiring at Resource Solutions, and Nicola Collings, Head of Professional Recruitment at Deutsche Bank. D is for Data and Diversity Deutsche Bank and Resource Solutions are partnering on a new strategy to change the way the global investment bank approaches diverse hiring in the US. Prompted by the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the bank’s CEO announced ‘seven actions in seven months’, including anonymous open-door Zoom sessions for employees to raise concerns with management, and measures to make executives more accountable for change.

positions, as well as key players in the recruitment process.

By Dawn GibsonFawcett Features Writer TALiNT Partners

While Deutsche Bank has been collating diversity data for some time, particularly around gender, they broadened their criteria to improve visibility around ethnicity and under-represented minorities. “We’ve made some huge strides in the data we collect and how we use it to drive change and conversations across the business,” Collings explains. “For example, we’re not getting enough black and Latinx candidates in our pipeline, so we have a branding and attraction issue, therefore we need funding for branding specialists. “In an organisation as large as ours, handling more than 1,200 hires a year, it can be hard to identify key players. But now, we meet quarterly with the diversity champions as a group to talk to them about the recruiting initiatives we are doing, and they are helping us carry the message across the organisation,” she says. Overcoming Cultural Resistance The Deutsche Bank strategy highlights one of the main hurdles facing Talent Acquisition leaders – elevating DEI from a recruitment issue to a cross-organisational issue.

This buy-in from the top was instrumental in ensuring words became actions, according to Nicola Collings, Head of Professional Recruitment at Deutsche Bank. “Having 800 conversations with 800 hiring managers just wasn’t proving to be fruitful, but we suddenly had an opportunity to get in front of senior leaders and tell them what we needed from them in order to create change,” she says.

Talent leaders described how resistance typically came from older decision-makers who did not see the point or viewed diversity as just one more item to cram into already over-full agendas. “We need to be cognizant of the fact that there’s a population of people who feel excluded when you say ‘DEI’, and we need to emphasise and educate that inclusion does not equal exclusion,” says Rhoda Banks, Head of Talent Management, American AgCredit.

The initiative continued beyond the initial seven months. At its heart is a dashboard built with Resource Solutions to track candidate movements throughout the hiring pipeline. Findings are shared each month with diversity champions across the business, many in senior

“In this space, people hold their beliefs and core systems dear to them, and we’re trying to challenge that thinking, and sometimes you can’t. They need to become outnumbered. We need to bring people into positions of influence and power with high decision-making ability that

TALiNT International October 2021

16 US Talent Solutions are passionate about it and do understand it.” Repackaging the DEI proposition according to your audience is essential, agrees Tom Lakin, Director of Innovation and Diverse Hiring at Resource Solutions: company leaders not swayed by ethical or moral arguments could sometimes be persuaded by the welldocumented economic benefits. “Diverse companies are 1.8 times more likely to be future focused and 1.7 times more likely to have innovative ideas, so there is the ROI,” he says. “I tell companies that they should buy into it because it makes business sense, and that has been a great way of connecting with those people who are less bothered. Those of us who are interested are going to be on this journey anyway, so it’s about reaching those people who care less.” “We built a framework which took about six months to apply academic research from almost every major university in the US to the recruitment process, considering every single touchpoint where bias can exist. “It’s that point of innocent ignorance - we often don’t know what we don’t know. For example, statistics would suggest that white candidates are far more likely to use iPhones, while Black and Latin candidates are more likely to use Android. Yet almost all companies test their careers content on iPhones, because their developers own iPhones, so it’s that kind of innocent ignorance that we need to confront.” Brooks Thurston, Global Head of TA Operations, Northern Trust, says organisations need to view diversity through a wider lens: “It’s not just gender, race or ethnicity, but also diversity of thought and understanding how hiring managers can bring in people from completely different backgrounds and experiences, and what value they can add.” The Great Resignation Recent surveys have pointed to mounting dissatisfaction among employees in the US, the UK, and other large economies, exacerbated by the sense of disconnectedness resulting from large-scale remote working. Combined with acute labour and talent shortages, it is unsurprising that some analysts are labelling 2021 as the ‘Year of the Great Resignation’. While talent leaders had varied experiences of attrition in their own work environments, they agreed hiring process should be more focussed on candidate expectations. “We all like to think that candidates are somewhat like customers,

TALiNT International October 2021

but we really need to shift the conversation to be more about them and what they’re looking for,” says Charlotte Dundon, VP of People and Culture, PM Hotel Group. A related concern is that the return to physical offices could undermine diversity and inclusion efforts. It is well documented that women bore the brunt of the pandemic’s impact on the labour market, in terms of job losses and juggling caring responsibilities. As companies encourage staff to return to offices, men are more eager to do so, and are so more likely to reap the rewards – there is growing evidence that in-office staff are favoured for promotion over remote colleagues. Creating Change While some talent acquisition teams face strong push-back, others face executives who want change to happen overnight or do not understand that overcoming bias is a constant, ongoing process. Toni Freeland, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Wolverine World Wide, says it was important to ensure a continual conversation, regardless of how uncomfortable or difficult it can be. She also emphasises the critical role of data to measure progress. Seth Hilgert, Talent Acquisition Director, American AgCredit, says: “I cannot stress the importance of data enough, but it is also the balance of looking at where you are and where you are looking to get to, not just trying to hit a number. It’s an evolution and cultural change.” Ed Chappel, HR Director, MMI Engineered Solutions, Inc, says is it crucial to engage with the diverse talent that already exists within your organisation, seeking ideas, and emphasising the importance and value of a diverse workforce. Talent leaders concur that creating a diverse and inclusive workplace involves a continual journey of knowledge sharing, with recruiters and HR teams encouraging other sections of their organisations to play their role.

“We all like to think that candidates are like customers, but we really need to shift the conversation to be more about them and what they’re looking for.” Charlotte Dundon, VP of People and Culture, PM Hotel Group

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From top to bottom: •

Nicola Collings, Head of Professional Recruitment, Deutsche Bank

•

Tom Lakin, Director of Innovation, Resource Solutions

•

Yasmine Mukahal, Assistant Director of Human Resources, Vanderbilt University

TALiNT International October 2021

18 PointSix: Talent Solutions

Reap what you SOW

How can staffing companies balance the risks and rewards of RPO, SOW and PEO in an increasingly competitive marketplace? The talent marketplace is evolving rapidly, prompting recruiters and RPOs to re-evaluate their service offerings. The options are vast for those seeking a new model: end-to-end RPO, project RPO, Statement of Work (SoW) contracts, partnering with professional employer (PEO) or umbrella organisations, or a combination? What offers the best balance between commercial opportunity and risk? To provide some clarity, TALiNT Partners Programme Director Alex Evans co-hosted a PointSix roundtable with Kevin Barrow, Partner, Advisory Group at Osborne Clarke, attended by recruitment executives from CPL, PageGroup, La Fosse Associates, MSI Group, ManpowerGroup, Robert Walters, Goodman Masson, Antal International, Meridian BS, SF Group and Celsus Group. RISKS & REWARDS Kevin Barrow started the discussion by outlining the increasing trend for specialist recruiters to re-invent themselves as consultancies, taking an element of responsibility for worker output in order to persuade clients to pay higher margins. IR35 reforms have also significantly boosted output-based work in the form of the increasing popularity of Statement of Work arrangements, under which staffing companies guarantee the management and delivery of project outcomes. For example, financial service organisations are increasingly using SoW agreements to engage contractors, while some companies see them as a solution to Brexit headaches when deploying UK contractors in the EU. “Statements of Work are not the child of IR35; they have been around for some time,” Barrow explained. “People use them to get better margins on exit, better multiples of EBITDA; it allows them to move into new countries without getting a licence, because they are providing

TALiNT International October 2021

resources on an output basis, and it differentiates them from other suppliers.

By Dawn GibsonFawcett, Features writer, TALiNT International

“HMRC have been very clear that they’ll be on the lookout for arrangements that are dressed up as Statements of Work by people trying to get around IR35. I’m seeing some pretend SoW, but in certain areas, especially technology and some areas of healthcare, there are genuine agreements where staffing companies take on the defined deliverable of projects for a fixed price.” To manage the risk, Barrow advises staffing companies to ensure they have a tight contract with a limitation clause, clearly spelling out the responsibilities of both parties, as well as appropriate insurance. “Private equity companies and City analysts don’t really think staffing companies can do this; historically, they feel staffing companies haven’t have had the internal quality control and risk management required,” Barrow added. MANAGING EXPECTATIONS Leaders at the roundtable represented staffing and RPO firms with a rich mix of experience – some had been offering total talent solutions for years, some were just venturing into this space, while others had decided to stick to a traditional recruitment model. Bridging the capability gap is a key challenge. Some had the capability, but not yet the confidence, while others needed to acquire more domain and subject matter expertise before launching into new arenas. Another big challenge is managing client expectations. While there is huge demand for RPO, especially in high volume recruitment, it can be extremely difficult to convince clients to pay for added value. Executives described being pressured to agree to liabilities vastly out of

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proportion to contract value or profitability.

is recruiting.”

Scott Siwicki, Group Client Solutions Director for RGF Staffing, formerly the Advantage Group, says it comes down to knowing when to say ‘no’. “Often, the demand is great, but the price is low, and it is about how to manage that demand whilst retaining a relationship,” he says. “It’s about working through with the client about our P&L and the cost to access the talent on a project time scale, which allows us to either mitigate or retain our margins. We need to know we are able to excel and to deliver the solution which benefits us both in the long-term.”

Osborne Clarke’s Kevin Barrow agreed that partnering with PEOs or umbrella companies could be a cost-effective solution for recruiters that did not want to invest heavily in technology to compete in the outsourcing space.

MAKING RPO MORE PROFITABLE Doug Rode, UK & Ireland Managing Director for PageGroup, says the company is growing its outsourcing division globally. “We work across lots of different sectors and certainly see the appetite for more creative solutions in the technology market, healthcare and, to some extent, engineering,” he explained. “We have started doing some Statement of Work, and I am interested in how that can blend with other areas, whether that be employed consultant models or recruit, train and deploy models, which we are also starting to see more demand for.” Affi Khan, CEO of CPL UK, has launched a new RPO offering in the wake of the company’s acquisition by the £3.2 billion Japanese corporation Outsourcing Inc in January. “We are now very focussed on our outsourcing operations, which in the UK is typically project RPO,” he says. “We did go for a PEO model in the US, but in the UK we have stayed away from it because it wasn’t particularly mature when we looked at it 18 months ago and there seemed to be a joint liability clause everywhere we looked. “We chose to partner with a Statement of Work online solution provider, so we could continue to focus on what we’re good at, which

Doug Rode PageGroup

Anouska Perera Page Outsourcing

Kevin Barrow Osborne Clarke

“There are 1,200 PEO companies in America, of whom probably about 100 are really quite sizable, and I’ve seen about 20 significant funding deals for them in the last year or two – they are going to be going for growth and in many cases international footprint,” Barrow observed. “We will see PEO companies offering a white label for all types of compliance and payroll. However, in the UK, we can’t get away from the fact that the UK press has recently been full of stories about some umbrella companies using dodgy tax schemes and otherwise exploiting workers, with calls for them to be banned or regulated, so major end clients may not want to engage directly with them.” KEY TAKEAWAYS Recruiters contemplating a new TA model should consider if they have the project management and sales capability in-house, and, if not, how they will acquire or partner with this talent. Several leaders recommended creating different divisions within the company to keep regulatory and insurance requirements separate, and decide whether they have the resources to invest in technology and optimise it fully. Fundamentally, it comes down to balancing client expectations, risks and margins. “It’s about how we navigate the regulations in the recruitment industry, but also deliver a service and put the client at the heart of what we do,” concluded Anouska Perera, Legal Director, Page Outsourcing.

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Navigate to success Just as the North Star gave navigators something to rely on as they charted their epic journeys, so Access NorthStar helps you navigate your way to success. Access NorthStar is a powerful cloud-based business improvement and productivity tool that integrates with your CRM, enabling recruitment agencies to turn information into intelligence and data into decisions. Helping your consultants to be more successful every day, your managers to see the bigger picture and your business to grow sustainably.

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Long term thinking The next generation of talent has emerged from the pandemic with a desire for solid career progression and a deeper sense of belonging in the workplace In the current economic climate, attracting and retaining young talent has become of paramount importance as skills shortages abound. With the industry reporting a “great resignation”, businesses must implement new and innovative ways to find the right talent, and to promote and support their longevity in the business. On the 17th of September, TALiNT Partners returned to the first in-person Emerging Talent Conference since before the pandemic at The King’s Fund in London, to unpack recruitment and retention strategies for early talent. LONG-TERM PROGRESSION PLANS While there are clearly short term demands for skills, employers still need to design their recruitment and development plans around where the business needs to be longer term. That plan must be decided in order to implement successful five, 10 and 15-year progression plans, so that the recruitment of young talent aligns completely with the business’s long-term strategy,” said Alison Chevalier, Director of Emerging Talent at AstraZeneca. “You also have to determine whether the strategy is going to remain in silos, or whether it is going to be woven into the fabric of your business.” If the strategy remains in silos, it will make aligning the hiring plan difficult as it’s not always easy to hire if each silo is doing things differently.

By Debbie Walton Editor TALiNT Partners

Ruth South, Head of Graduate and Apprentice Programmes at Cap Gemini agrees that an internal growth strategy builds a better workforce today if it’s inspired by tomorrow. “It’s important to ‘grow your own’ in your business and truly encourage candidates to be themselves in the workplace,” she explained. “Putting candidates in the driving seat of their own careers, offering networking and work rotation programmes for new talent gives them a 360-view of the business and allows them to make informed decisions about where they would like their career to progress,” added Floriane Haubourdin, Learning and Development Specialist from Swift. Floriane and Teresa also believe that reinvesting in the training of managers builds an accessible communication channel that ensures new

“Don’t think about traditional hires. Think about other degrees, and other candidates from different backgrounds, who will bring value to your business.” Zoe Jeanes, Director, Debut

22 Emerging Talent in-person days,” added Andy. “For example, find out what their favourite drink or snack is, as this encourages bonding and cultivates an inclusive and supportive environment.”

candidates are heard and understood – so they are more likely to stay. METRICS THAT MATTER The use of data and metrics plays an essential part in strategic workforce planning, building the business case for hiring early talent, and measuring the return on investment. In a world where hiring managers are more likely to look externally for senior roles instead of progressing the careers that the business has already invested in, it’s clear that progression plans are lacking.

Zoe Jeanes Director Debut

“Metrics are a reliable and robust means to determine who you want to stay in your business”, said Andy Randall, CEO of eArcu. Simon Reichwald, Strategic Lead for Talent at MyKindaFuture stressed the importance of investing in and empowering young talent. The relationship with new hires begins the moment they apply for a role at your business. “The all too often overlooked pre-boarding process (that yes-to-desk period) in this hyper competitive candidate market is not just who starts but how they start; every step of the journey from candidate to employee, determines both speed to value and longevity of new talent in your business,” he explained. “Addressing all the questions that run through the minds of candidates, pre- and post-offer, is just one aspect of a personalised approach to every single hire.” A SENSE OF BELONGING Andy Randall believes that the retention strategy begins right at the start of the relationship. “The candidate journey and employer brand are both equally important,” he explained. “Right from the beginning, you must keep your candidates engaged and inspired. Candidates want to be around people who are like them as this creates a sense of belonging.”

Ruth South Head of Graduate and Apprentice Programmes Cap Gemini

Andy Randall CEO eArcu

Early engagement is key. By telling your company’s story and marketing your brand in a different way it is easier to more immediately grab the attention of the young talent you want in your business. “Build exciting onboarding processes and make an impact on the rarer

“It’s important to ‘grow your own’ in your business and truly encourage candidates to be themselves in the workplace.” Ruth South, Head of Graduate and Apprentice Programmes, Cap Gemini

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Candidates are more attracted to the culture of a business and show less emotional attachment to the actual job, so that sense of belonging is more likely to keep young talent committed. Teresa Simbeye, Head of Talent and Diversity at Swift agreed that adapting to a new global workforce, where candidates and team members are stationed all over the globe, is a new retention challenge. While in-person networking opportunities were non-existent during the pandemic, Swift implemented online networking sessions. By focussing on networking, they created opportunities for candidates in the same position as one another to foster a supportive community for new, young recruits. AMBASSADORS AND MENTORS Tapping into the power of peer-to-peer interactions by implementing mentoring programmes plays an important role in the retention and progression of young talent. Mentorship programmes allow early talent to immerse themselves in a supportive environment, create first-hand learning opportunities for them and gives them access to senior members of the business who have experience both in the business and the industry. “‘Mentoring with purpose’ helps to cultivate the sense of belonging that your new talent desires in the workplace, so such programmes are key to retention,” said Simon Reichwald from MyKindaFuture. The TA team at Swift invited “Swiftees” to join interviews. The purpose of this was to invite Swift brand ambassadors to be a part of the recruitment process to assist in identifying those applicants who are a good fit for the roles. Engaging those staff members who live the company brand and are strong advocates for the company is inspiring to new young talent. “Early engagement is a great way to hook emerging talent. Be sure to have ambassadors for the business connect with the young talent from day one so they can see what their career could look like in the future,” said Andy Randall. LOVE AT FIRST CLICK Widening your business’s recruitment net opens non-traditional doors to new hires. By moving away from the kind of candidate you usually hire you can tap into a wealth of new and unexpected talent. “Don’t think about traditional

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hires. Think about other degrees, and other candidates from different backgrounds, who will bring value to your business,” said Zoe Jeanes, Director of Debut. According to a survey of 1,000 respondents from Instagram conducted on behalf of Debut by @ thefairyjobmothe, candidates are asking these three key questions:

represented groups are 11 times more likely to experience nerves that affect their performance, when compared to their white, privileged peers. Improving female representation in the workforce, as well as streamlining application processes, can both improve attraction and retention campaigns as well as driving diversity.

1. Will the organisation treat me fairly? 2. Is the work interesting? 3. Will I have access to training and development?

An important part of the candidate journey is giving feedback – and asking for it. Nine out of 10 candidates are less likely to refer an employer if they are not given feedback during the application process.

Gen Zs genuinely care about diversity and inclusion, wellbeing, and mental health, so ensuring that these form part of the foundation of the business will improve retention of young talent.

Only four out of 10 candidates who received feedback found it useful. Communication forms the basis of all successful relationships, so feedback is a vital component in emerging talent recruitment programmes.

“Emotional engagement is key to your young talent recruitment strategy,” explained Zoe.

GOLD NUGGET TAKEWAYS So what were the top takeaways from this year’s Emerging Talent conference? Gen Zs are more visual and emotional creatures so use rich context and real-life videos to tell your story and bring your employer brand to life.

CX APPEAL The candidate experience will determine whether a potential employee wants to join an organisation – and it will help them decide whether they are likely to stay long-term. Rowena Bach, Talent Strategy Director at PeopleScout reported that a mere 5% of applicants rate their candidate experience as excellent. Zoe from Debut observed that poor communication and expectation management is still the norm. “Be specific about your requirements and be transparent. Give timelines and stick to them,” she advised. DIVERSIFYING THE WORKFORCE Rowena also highlighted research from PeopleScout which found that talent pipelines are leaking - with five out of 10 female applicants abandoning their applications due to lack of confidence. Also, candidates from under-

Gen Zs receive more than a thousand pieces of information a day – so share bitesize chunks of information throughout the candidate journey but make sure they are impactful and relatable. With ghosting and drop-outs far more prevalent than they have ever been, especially in a candidate’s market, make feedback a central part of your candidate experience and maintain communication to keep them engaged. And focus on progression plans and measure the return on investment on new talent, with mentoring and learning programmes to develop future leaders for the senior hires of tomorrow.

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24 The Future of Work

The Internet of Value The next phase in our digital evolution will have major implications for the future of work, from the death of the CV to the birth of talent tokens and verifiable career wallets. One of the first reported applications of the CV as a personal marketing document was made by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1482 for the open vacancy of Military Engineer with the Duke of Milan. “I know how when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions,” he wrote. After painting the most famous artwork of all time and inventing the helicopter and parachute, Leonardo was to become one of the most talented humans that has ever lived. The recruiting manager didn’t know this at the time, so back then even young Leo had to apply for a job. Five centuries later and we still pitch for jobs in a similar way. Despite research showing that 70% of CV’s contain evidence of ‘white lies’, this issue doesn’t come up as a particular worry for CHROs. The real issue with recruitment is predicting which individual will be successful in a particular team. New technology helps. For example, machine learning can pick out specific patterns, and factors, that we humans will never see. We know that what makes a good worker is complex and contextual and includes skills, experience, demographics, the culture of the organisation, and personality. But the thing that holds us back isn’t access to the right machines; it’s access to good quality data. One reason we don’t have access to good quality data is because it is controlled by a handful of digital landlords who protect their property. A new infrastructure of work is being built which

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By Andrew Spence Workforce Futurist

will gradually drag the job market into the digital age. This will replace CVs and resumes with verifiable digital career wallets, enable selfsovereign identity, support effective workmatching platforms, and allow us to use predictive tools based on quality data and actual behaviour rather than self-reported surveys. We are moving from the ‘internet of information’ to the ‘internet of value’, known as Web3. In the first generation of the internet, we can easily exchange data on a massive scale, from emails to photos to PDFs. This generated new business models that we use today, from job boards to music distribution like Spotify. The internet of information is not a great platform to secure an exchange of value. If I send you one hundred pounds, it is important that I don’t have the money anymore, and I can’t send it to someone else. The internet of value can apply to the transfer of any asset across a digital platform where we need to relinquish our right to that asset; for example, with deeds, Intellectual Property, and visual art. See the rise of Non Fungible Tokens NFTs, where Christie’s became the first auction house to offer digital art NFTs for sale. As we move to the internet of value, where individuals have more control over their own data and some work is tokenised, we will start to see new types of business models develop. Here are some examples to illustrate how this might look in the world of work: The Web3 CV. The non-profit Velocity Foundation is building the Internet of Careers,

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reinventing how career records are shared across the global market. A more efficient and fairer global labour market requires greater trust between workers and participants in business, education, government. It requires data that is controlled by users, verifiable and interoperable across different platforms. Their members include HireRight, SuccessFactors, Oracle, KornFerry, Cornerstone, and represent a billion workers. Members can issue, share and verify career credentials using blockchain technology. Truu provides a secure, portable digital passport for a modern healthcare system including the NHS in the UK. It’s estimated that 100,000 clinical days per year are lost in the UK to cover doctors completing onboarding checks when they move to new hospitals. Clinicians use a digital staff passport – which collates and enables remote verification of all their relevant qualifications, registrations, and other necessary

“Employer brand in 2021 needs to accommodate ‘the great flourishing’ – where workers want more autonomy, flexibility and equity and ‘the loneliness epidemic’ where people are looking for connection and belonging.”

paperwork – reducing the process to minutes. Braintrust is a freelancer platform where workers control the network they make their living on, using $BTRST tokens which are used to vote and reward Users. The founders have experience building successful two-sided digital markets which bodes well. Braintrust have some significant clients including Nike, Nasa, Nestle, Deloitte etc, who benefit from quality freelancers and far lower fees than other platforms. Tokenise Yourself Like Messi. If you think hiring a technology Executive is complicated, then spare a thought for those working on footballer contracts. Lionel Messi’s recent transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint Germain, on a two-year deal, worth £25m per year, was partly funded by fan tokens, $PSG. This is the latest big-name endorsement of new digital assets. Decentraland is the first fully decentralised 3D virtual world. It operates as a multi-player role-playing game and allows users to build an entire virtual world. You can buy land, then build whatever content and experiences you want including music concerts, games, casinos, art shows, exchanges. Recently, 12,600 square meters of virtual land was sold in Decentraland for about $1 million. Decentraland is also a Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO). The community vote on policy updates, future LAND auctions, and whatever the community deems relevant. DAOs are new ways to finance projects, govern communities, and share value. Future of work So what might this mean for building a

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26 The Future of Work

preferable future of work? Roy Amara, the futurist, stated that there are three main classes of futures: possible, probable, and preferable. Predicting the future is impossible but thinking about it can be useful. Mega-trends shaping work have been accelerated by the pandemic, which include the ‘The Decentralised Workforce’. An untapped workforce is utilising digital technology to develop extra income streams, from solopreneurs to playbourers and digital creators. In an era where the workforce has changed radically from the previous generation, employer brand in 2021 needs to balance ‘the great flourishing’ - where workers want more autonomy, flexibility and equity – with the ‘loneliness epidemic’ where people are looking for connection and belonging. As we build a new infrastructure of work, we might see individuals hold their career credentials, such as skills, educational certificates and employment history using verifiable digital career wallets. New Talent Platforms will allow efficient work-matching using the data from the career wallets. Over time, there will be more trust in the platforms, with workers and employers increasingly using them for better results, seamless transactions, and quicker payments. More autonomous workers will start to develop new forms of teamwork including cooperatives, digital guilds, platforms, and DAOs. DAOs will only be as good as the trust within a community, but provide a promising mechanism to facilitate the next generation of organisations. Another implication of a decentralised workforce and work-matching platforms might be that smaller enterprises are needed. Employers will need fewer full-time workers because they will be able to pull from a reliable liquid workforce when they need it. In this scenario, society will need to adapt to having more people work outside of traditional employment contracts, with implications for education, taxation, and welfare. In the future, not all of us will have our own token, play for PSG, or paint a masterpiece, but many will be able to operate outside of traditional organisations and work with more autonomy and equity.

TALiNT International October 2021

“CVs and resumes will be replaced with verifiable digital career wallets, enabled by self-sovereign identity, and will support effective work-matching platforms. This will allow us to use better predictive tools based on quality data and actual behaviour rather than self-reported surveys.”

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omni-rms TALiNT International October 2021

29 TIARA 2021

Crowning achievements In two transformational years, the TIARAs have established themselves as the pre-eminent awards for excellence in the HR and Recruitment sector. In 2019, TALiNT Partners and Recruitment International merged – creating the largest insights platform for inhouse, agency, RPO and HR tech leaders with TALiNT International. Building on a 20-year legacy, the Recruitment International Awards was relaunched as the TALiNT International Annual Recruitment Awards, or TIARAs, to exclusively recognise established market leaders. The lockdown-defying TIARA programme expanded in 2020 to encompass the TIARA Recruitment Awards, Talent Acquisition Awards, Talent Solutions Awards, and Talent Tech Star Awards. They also expanded internationally, with TIARA campaigns in the UK, US, UAE, and Australia. The TIARAs are distinguished by the rigour and transparency of its three-stage judging process and elevated further by the quality and diversity of our judges. Our judging panels include senior industry executives, talent leaders, buyers, investors, advisers, and a range of multi-sector business experts to make a TIARA a powerful endorsement. TIARA entries are designed around criteria including Employee Excellence, Innovation, Client & Candidate Service, Business Growth, and Purpose & Values to explore the story behind the numbers and highlight the most relevant measures of impact and success. All those shortlisted for a TIARA award are offered feedback as part of TALiNT Partners’ ambition to raise standards and drive improvement in the sector with meaningful insights. The TIARAs bring the best together to crown the achievements that should inspire the wider industry. After so much time apart, it’s a pleasure and a privilege to celebrate with industry leaders at or TIARA award ceremonies. Thank you to our partners, our judges, and our finalists.

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The Talent Tech Stars of 2021 The TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards shine a spotlight on the best HR and Recruitment technology solutions for employers, recruiters, candidates, and contractors. In 2021, we built on last year’s successful launch to recognise new areas of excellence, innovation and growth with more accolades including: The Talent Tech Scale-Up Award, The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For, and The Talent Tech Leader of the Year.

the expectations of buyers and investors, with guaranteed feedback and valuable insight for all those shortlisted. Our esteemed panel of judges make a TIARA Talent Tech Star Award a powerful and prestigious endorsement - not only differentiating solutions but enhancing brand to attract both clients and top talent to enable scale.

As Josh Bersin said last year: “If the pandemic made HR the centre of attention of the board for the first time, it also radically changed the HR Tech marketplace for good”. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of new solutions, and new ways of working, so there has never been a better time for the HR tech industry to prove its worth. All 35 finalists shortlisted for the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards have demonstrated the value and impact of their solutions, enabling employers and recruiters to optimise their talent and technology whilst improving the candidate experience and employee journey. The TIARA judging process is designed around

Alex Evans Programme Director TALiNT Partners

Thank you to our judges, led by NED and Chairman Martin McCourt, for his time and commitment in choosing this year’s winners and the feedback that will help both winners and finalists improve their solutions and grow their businesses. Thank you also to our sponsors and partners, Optima Corporate Finance, Marriott Harrison and Deloitte for their support of the Talent Tech Star Awards campaign to celebrate those at the cutting edge. The TIARAs bring to life TALiNT Partners’ mission to help employers find and keep the people they need.

TALiNT International October 2021

Fast-to-deploy mid-market Vendor Management System Cross-border, multi-lingual and multi-currency capability Deployed across 21 countries, to 130,000 end client sites by 8,500 recruitment agency branches - processing over 230,000 assignments daily

Pixid VMS gives you and your clients end-to-end visibility, control and governance of your contingent workforce processes.

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Workforce Solution of the Year 2021

To find out more, please visit www.pixid.com/pixidvms or call us on +44 333 005 1685 or email sales@pixid.com

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The Workforce Solution of the Year Award Pixid’s workforce technology drives innovation and improvement across the talent acquisition landscape and enables the recruitment of more inclusive and productive teams. Pixid was founded in 2004 by Adecco, Randstad and Manpower, to develop and provide a Vendor Management System (VMS) specifically to support the complex French temporary staffing market – with over 30% of all contingent workers on the platform. In 2019, OYO, now the world’s largest online hotel group with one million rooms in 23,000 hotels and 125,000 vacation homes based in 337 cities, partnered with Kelly Services to expand into the highly competitive European market. Kelly Services joined forces with vendor Pixid to launch a new online recruitment strategy that successfully generated more than 3,000 candidates which resulted in over 300 temporary staff onboarded at OYO Vacation Homes (UK & Europe). Pixid won in this category because they proved that workforce technology is driving innovation and improvement across all aspects of talent acquisition and development, from attracting more diverse candidates to accessing new pools of talent to enabling more inclusive and productive teams.

Judges said: “Pixid demonstrated excellence, innovation, and strong growth, with a great balance of value in functionality and people to deliver an impressive workforce solution.”

Mark Kieve, Pixid’s CEO accepts the Workforce Solution of the Year award from judge Chris Gray, Sales Director of ManpowerGroup.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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Congratulations Marriott Harrison congratulates all the nominees and winners at the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards.

MH are proud sponsors of the Candidate Experience Solution of the Year Award. The top tier London law firm specialising in the recruitment sector and providing legal solutions across the whole staffing supply chain. www.marriottharrison.co.uk

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The Contractor Solution of theYear My Digital’s innovative approach to technology helped bring vital contingency talent into key sectors to support the economy during the pandemic. My Digital is a pioneer in Quantum Employment Design (QED) and a leading SaaS supplier for umbrella companies, PEOs, PSC, and recruiters. With a background in accountancy, tax, human resources and SaaS software, My Digital has built out a complete QED software suite that powers tomorrow’s digital employers.

Len Curtis and Josh Bramhall of MyDigital show off their Contractor Solution of the Year and Compliance Solution of the Year trophies

Their complete system is interconnected with CRM, Finance, Onboarding, Identity Checks and Business Analytics modules which gives clients a complete environment where all data flows seamlessly between different stages of their operations. Their solution reduced direct emails and phone calls by 44% and at the same time, increased the average time of query resolution by 23%. My Digital helped to bring vital talent into key sectors to support the economy as UK plc became more reliant on freelance and contract workers through the pandemic. Solutions to assess, onboard and pay the contingent workforce more efficiently has been paramount to the success and re-building of the economy. My Digital was recognised for its best value, innovation and impact in solutions for contingent workers.

Judges said: “My Digital is succeeding in its mission to create a complete ecosystem for the staffing industry by connecting services and joining up data to access contingent talent more quickly and compliantly.”

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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The Marriott Harrison Candidate Experience Solution of the Year 360 Resourcing offers a customised approach to technology, using gamefication improves the candidate experience as well as provides relevant feedback to both candidates and employers. 360 Resourcing was founded in 2009 to provide businesses with a better way to attract, recruit, and retain the strongest talent. It offers some of the UK’s most innovative recruitment and engagement platforms: industry-leading recruitment software, Talos, and the gamified employee engagement platform, Worklife. This combination of SaaS innovations allows employers to easily identify candidates who will appreciate their company’s core values and employee value proposition. Candidates are also able to feedback about the candidate experience using gamification. This supports new starters who are well-matched with their new roles and employers, promoting morale, wellbeing, and retention. Boasting 98% customer retention, client webuyanycar said: “The system does exactly what we want it to and more. It gives the candidates a better experience than any other system I have encountered, and that’s from a recruiter’s point of view as well as candidate point of view.”

Judges praised 360 Resourcing for its customisation available to the candidate during the recruitment process, providing clients with feedback on their onboarding process, and its measurement of team happiness and engagement.

Janette Martin, CEO of 360 Resourcing Solutions accepts the Candidate Experience Solution of the Year award from Chris Mooney, Partner at award sponsor Marriott Harrison.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year Paiger defended its title for the second year running for its agile adaptation of their technical roadmap to deliver three highly successful features and grow its client base. Paiger helps recruiters research and identify new customers for the perfect outreach. Their nurturing solution helped recruiters build a personal brand by sourcing candidates via social media and turned consultants into advocates of the brand. Paiger’s solutions are now used by over 2,000 recruiters and marketers. As COVID-19 hit, Paiger’s customers’ priorities dramatically shifted from a need for candidates, to a need for jobs. They quickly adapted their technical roadmap to deliver three new features to their customers: Identify for daily funding news, acquisitions and senior appointments across the industry to know which are scaling; Research to prospect decision-makers; and Vacancies for hot job leads filtered by sector & location. “Paiger has completely revolutionised the sales team’s approach to content on LinkedIn,” said Dan Evans, Marketing Director, JCW. “We are no longer just a collection of people only posting hiring updates. In turn, we’ve seen a real shift in how teams embrace marketing and ideas.”

Judges praised Paiger for showcasing their challenger mindset with innovation underpinned by agility, impressive growth during Covid and great client feedback, pivoting and partnering to meet changing customer needs.

Darren Westall & Rohit Kapoor of Paiger show off their Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year award.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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The Diversity & Inclusion Solution of the Year Arctic Shores’ ambition and strong focus on diversity drove innovation, increased headcount as well as profitability during a very challenging year. Since launching in 2014, Arctic Shores’ pioneering behaviour-based assessments have improved diversity and reduced time-to-hire and recruitment costs at organisations around the world. Its award-winning technology removes unconscious bias from recruitment, so employers can see beyond the CV, and discover every candidate’s truest potential. It provides a unique, stress-free and unbiased experience for nearly two million candidates, with existing clients including PwC, Siemens, Capita and the Ministry of Justice. As question-based tests have proven to cause candidate anxiety - and so an unequal playing field, often favouring white, male, neurotypical candidates - replacing the typical questions with intuitive tasks in Arctic Shores assessment sets candidates at ease. Judges praised this innovative approach to helps candidates forget they’re being assessed to show their potential.

Judges praised Arctic Shores for great ambition and an impressive solution with a strong focus on process, clear evidence of impact in removing bias, and impressive results on revenue, headcount, scale and profitability.

TALiNT International October 2021

Arctic Shores CEO Robert Newry accepts the Diversity & Inclusion Solution of the Year award from judge Karima Green, Global Head of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & People Engagement at SThree.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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The Compliance Solution of the Year My Digital’s agile adaptation to IR35 changes in April proved their committment to compliance in the contract workforce while adopting new talent solution models in support of their clients. My Digital is a pioneer in Quantum Employment Design (QED) and a leading SaaS supplier for umbrella companies, PEOs, PSC, and recruiters. With a background in accountancy, tax, human resources and SaaS software, With over a 60% increase in customer base and over one million transactions in last 12 months, a significant shift in the requirements of the recruitment market is recognised and proves that the need to facilitate a flexible workforce is more important than ever. With the introduction of IR35 in April 2021 the industry was faced with new challenges as many Personal Service Companies turned to umbrella models or PEOs. A portion of My Digital’s overall growth has been a result of this change. Judges observed that compliance is such a complex and time-consuming part of recruitment that solutions, and MyDigital’s simple and game-changing solution was recognised for the impact it had, not only on the industry but the wider economy.

Judges said: “My Digital enabled a growing client base of employers and recruiters to adapt to the challenges of IR35 more quickly and adopt new talent solutions models whilst improving service for contractors.”

Len Curtis and Josh Bramhall of MyDigital accept their Compliance Solution of the Year award from TALiNT Partners’ Andy Daniel.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Onboarding Solution of the Year Eli’s tailored workflows, personalised content and social interactions make for an incredibly versatile and agile approach to onboarding. Eli enables HR to easily build and manage a globally consistent onboarding experience and process, then tailors that experience for different audiences (including those supporting the process). Globally, Eli has a 93% engagement rate for new hires, and pulls in thousands of positive comments and page ratings each month. Eli does this by managing three fundamental elements of the onboarding process – tailored workflows; personalised content and social interaction. Clients can dial each element up or down independently to suit their audiences. This makes Eli hugely versatile, and enables them to onboard professional hires, contractors, graduates, line managers, and buddies all through the same system, then break these groups down further by everything from language and location to department and grade. Judges commented that upskilling candidates is a vital part of the onboarding process and a huge opportunity for talent tech to make an impact on recruitment, which was demonstrated by Eli Onboarding.

Judges praised Eli Onboarding for evidencing impact, great values, innovative tools and touches, and a deep understanding of the onboarding process with strong adaptability and agility.

TALiNT International October 2021

Eli Onboarding’s Relationship Development Director Sarah Wardle accepts the Onboarding Solution of the Year award

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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The Learning Solution of the Year Clear View’s real-time feedback and learning technology has enabled agencies and employers to improve performance in their businesses. Clear Review is an innovative software solution business which supports year-round performance management through near-term performance and development objectives, regular, future-focused ‘check-ins’, frequent feedback and accountable actions. Data needed for reward and talent management planning are compiled into Performance Snapshots, which allow managers to quickly, and fairly, review staff performance throughout the year. Their platform ensures continuous personal development by enabling feedback to be given in real-time as events occur, ensuring employees are recognised in the moment for achievements and given constructive feedback to improve. They also empower employees to achieve specific personal development goals based on their feedback. As learning has become more self-directed for employees and the only option for the contingent workforce, learning solutions must be simple and easy to integrate into busy lives with a great user experience.

Judges said: “Clear Review clearly demonstrated success in adapting to client challenges around homeworking and furloughed staff through lockdown. It’s also commended for its steady growth, clear mission and practicing what it preaches with its own employees’ development.”

Nick Gallimore, Director of Talent Transformation & Insight at Clear Review accepts the Learning Solution of the Year award from TALiNT Partners’ David Head.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Talent Tech Customer Service Award Odro’s award winning software has shown true innovation with its Zoom and Teams integration in an enviroment that needed fast and agile digital transformation during the pandemic. Odro is the UK’s leading video software provider to the recruitment industry, developed specifically to help agencies streamline their processes and drive profitability. It equips recruiters with advanced interviewing, sales messaging, and video content creation tools in one complete, end-to-end solution. Dedicated to continuous innovation, it is now the only video supplier globally that’s integrated with Zoom and MS Teams - which gives its clients far greater flexibility with video. Judges were impressed with the clear benefits it demonsrated to itscustomers, which include: increased engagement, in some cases up to 80% and by 46% on average; an average reduction in time to hire of 34%; an increase in exclusive roles of 28%; and increased conversion rates on vacancies by up to 70% (source: cube19). In 2020, on average, Odro’s clients achieved three times their annual investment in the platform back within 10 weeks and had 11 x their year one spend returned within the first 12 months.

Judges said: “Odro showed clear and demonstrable innovation with its Zoom and Teams integration and its impressive Capture product, delivering the best service to clients with strong testimonials that has driven excellent growth.” TALiNT International October 2021

Paul Lucherini, Odro’s VP of Customer Success, accepts the Talent Tech Customer Service Award.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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The Talent Tech Innovation Award Mercury xRM demonstrated a remarkable resilience, adaptability and focus as it enabled the digital transformation of recruiters to support clients, candidates and consultants. Mercury xRM is cloud-based, online recruitment software that helps the world’s recruiters place candidates and fill more vacancies faster. Owned and run by former recruitment and staffing professionals, Mercury xRM has a strong track record in the recruitment and staffing sector. As a Microsoft partner, Mercury xRM fully embraces the Microsoft cloud technology platform. This means its clients get to unlock the native integration of Outlook, Teams, LinkedIn, and many more Microsoft products to deliver better efficiencies and essentially, more profit. The automation possibilities extend to other business applications too, ensuring the seamless movement of data around the business. RED reduced time to first shortlist, the first submission, and from vacancy to placement year-on-year for four years running – growing revenue and profit year-on-year without increasing headcount. Mercury xRM clearly demonstrated that smart and collaborative talent tech businesses are best able to innovate, pivot and build during times of challenge, whether it’s developing new products, expanding client relationships, or improving business efficiencies.

Judges said: “Mercury xRM is delivering significant benefits to their clients and they have a true understanding of how digital transformation can impact an industry. Strong evidence of impact with great potential to drive industrywide improvement.”

Mercury xRM CEO Chris Kendrick accepts the Talent Tech Innovation award from judge and investor Kirstie Kelly Batt.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Deloitte Talent Tech Scale-Up Award By developing an advanced-risk data solution, Sonovate was able to increase funding to SMEs and ensure over 23,500 contractors were paid on time during the pandemic. Sonovate seamlessly funds and manages all business financial needs across an all-in-one, cloud solution platform across 40+ countries and on a client-by-client basis. The objective is to alleviate time and financial strain, whilst providing security to enable full scalability for recruitment agencies, consultancies, on-demand companies and independent contractors. Sonovate were quick to identify business shifts and financial needs at a time when private financiers tightened their belts and reduced their appetite for risk, adapting to provide a solution. Their algorithm consists of advanced risk, credit, financial, firmographic and macroeconomic data to optimise the funding available to their customers.Sonovate increased funding to SMEs and they were able to ensure 23,500 contractors were paid on time, every time, releasing funds of over £1.7bn towards invoices to help businesses scale faster. Achieving scale in a challenging economy is doubly impressive and Sonovate adapted to build strong foundations for growth.

Judges said: “Sonovate achieved impressive growth last year from an already sizeable base, with strong client feedback and great testimonials. Sonovate smartly adjusted to the changing landscape with a purpose-led solution for the growing gig economy.”

Sonovate’s Mark Thompson accepts the Talent Tech Scale-Up award from award sponsor Deloitte.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For Low attrition rates, the replacement of preformance reviews with ‘career journeys’ and a direct line of communication to the CEO made Firefish the best talent tech company to work for. Firefish Software is a combined CRM and recruitment marketing software tool that’s changing the way businesses recruit. Since launching in 2010, it has helped hundreds of recruiter-owned agencies to gain a serious competitive edge by combining their recruitment CRM and marketing activities onto one platform. Recruiting with Firefish results in users converting 45% more candidates directly because of the traffic it drives to their own recruitment website. Firefish has a staff turnover of under 1% and an annual absence rate of 0.23 days per employee. Focus Groups allow each Fish to have significant input into the direction of the business in key areas of sales, customer success and culture. Through Career Journeys employees are supported and encouraged to achieve their career objectives, whether be it a promotion, increased knowledge or moving to a different team in the business. Since replacing Performance Reviews with Career Journeys, 31% of the team have achieved promotions, and two “Fish” have completely new roles. To ensure everyone has clarity of company performance the Firefish CEO shares uncensored statistics and figures every month.

Firefish Growth Executive Beth William accepts the Best Talent Tech Company award from TALiNT Partner’s Debra Sparshott.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

Judges said: “Very impressive staff turnover with great leadership and it is clear that employees feel fulfilled in their roles. A great growth story and good to see how Firefish celebrate success at individual and team level.”

TALiNT International October 2021

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Op t i m a a d

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Optima Talent Tech Leader of the Year Under the strong leadership of Ryan McCabe, Odro has gone from strength to strength in the last 12 months, growing clients and headcount and securing a £5.2m investment from BGF. Since launching in 2005 with just two full-time employees, Ryan and Bill, Odro has achieved substantial growth. In the last three years it delivered a 512% increase in sales. It now employs over 40 staff and serves over 700 agencies worldwide. This year Odro secured a £5.2m investment from BGF to accelerate the business’s international growth trajectory. With that, Rob Crossland, former founder of the Optionis Group, joined as Chairman. Over the past year, strong leadership was required as the business had to combine the implementation of its vision with the challenges of lockdown. Judges said that under the visionary and inspirational leadership of Ryan, Odro has not only proven the value and impact of video technology on the recruitment industry but has also contributed to improving the image of the sector.

Judges said: “A super smart business with a positive culture and a genuine sense of innovation led by an impressive founder who knows how to attract and retain good people and keep them striving for greater things. Ryan has managed the challenge of maintaining culture and staying true to core values while scaling organically.”

Odro CEO Ryan McCabe accepts the Optima Talent Tech Leader of the Year award from Optima’s Andrew Maylor.

TIARA Talent Tech Star 2021 Finalists

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Talent Tech Champion of Champions Chair of judges Martin McCourt explains the significance of the Champion of Champions Award and why Odro triumphed this year. The 2021 Talent Tech Star Award finalists represent challengers, disruptors and transformers across the spectrum of business growth, from high potential, early stage start-ups to scaling SMEs. Each of this year’s winners of the Talent Tech Star Awards are championing transformation and innovation in different parts of the talent ecosystem, from candidate experience, compliance and marketing to learning, onboarding and workforce management. This year’s Champion of Champions shines a spotlight on an important talent challenge that is being solved with great innovation, client service and leadership. Odro won a hat-trick of awards to crown a great year for the business, with big client wins including Hays and a £5.2m growth investment from BGF. Winner of this year’s Customer Service and Leader of the Year awards, Odro has demonstrated excellence, leadership and growth to make it a worthy Champion of Champions for 2021.

Ryan McCabe and the Odro team accept the Talent Tech Champion of Champions Award from TIARA Chair of Judges Martin McCourt

“It has been a great year for Odro, with big client wins including Hays and a £5m growth investment from BGF. The winner of this year’s Customer Service and Leader of the Year awards, Odro has demonstrated excellence, leadership and growth to make it a worthy Champion of Champions for 2021.”

TALiNT International October 2021

TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards 2021 Ken Brotherston Managing Director TALiNT Partners

2021 has been a truly remarkable year for talent acquisition teams. The speed with which the hiring came to a halt in 2020 was matched only by the speed with which it rebounded in 2021. The need for organisational transformation has impacted recruiting plans and processes in new and complex ways, all of which have challenged resourcing teams as never before. As we begin to look at a post pandemic talent world, the challenges continue to come thick and fast: defining talent strategies for hybrid and remote working structures, integrating internal mobility with external talent pools, identifying new skills for a new economy, and driving the D&I agenda, to name a few. After 18 months of turmoil, it has been amazing to see the examples of innovation, resilience, business partnership and agility delivered by our finalists, and we are delighted to be able to

recognise that work through the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards. TALiNT Partners’ TIARA awards campaigns are already the largest in the world which recognise the achievements of staffing companies, recruitment outsourcing providers and talent tech firms, so it is a timely and natural move to now celebrate the work done by in-house resourcing teams. The TIARAs are recognised for the rigour of the process and the quality of the judging panel and are seen as a genuine and meaningful accolade for winners. The awards themselves are a great night out and a fantastic chance to celebrate and network with peers and friends across the industry. The awards are also a great way for employers to showcase their own brands to their internal audiences as well as the wider candidate world so, ultimately, are another way to help them find and keep the people they need.

The 2021 judging panel brought together expert perspectives from senior HR and Talent Acquisition Leaders and wider business leaders such as Lord Chris Holmes, deputy Chair of Channel 4, and the broadcaster and journalist Trevor Phillips.

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I would like to extend my thanks to our esteemed panel of judges for their time and commitment in choosing this year’s winners and in providing meaningful feedback for winners and finalists. Our judges’ deliberations were balanced, lively, occasionally controversial but always insightful and thoughtful. Their range of experience brought an amazing diversity of different perspectives. I am grateful to our sponsors eArcu, Horsefly Analytics, Lorien, Retinue Talent Solutions and Sova Assessment for their support in the launch of the very first TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards program.Everyone here at TALiNT Partners is thrilled to have been able to play a part in helping our finalists get the recognition they so richly deserve.

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The Early Careers Pioneer Award An innovative approach to apprenticeship programmes and work experience for the over 16s resulted in a boosted 90-day retention for Greene King Greene King is a leading pub retailer and brewer with 1,700 managed pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK, employing 38,000 employees and 1,000 leased, franchised and tenanted pubs. Alongside the apprenticeship programmes, Greene King offers structured work experience for those aged 16+ at catering colleges. It also supports government on business forums and consultations when reviewing policy, including areas like careers advice. Greene King revised its apprenticeship recruitment process by placing greater emphasis on attitude and enthusiasm while interviewing, rather than prior attainment - which resulted in more applications from disadvantaged postcodes. Alongside apprenticeship programmes, an aftercare project for recruited apprentices provided additional support from school/college engagement officers to ensure young recruits had someone to ask questions – especially if they were embarrassed to ask while at work. This initiative created a safe and welcoming space for candidates and boosted retention and learner satisfaction.

Judges praised a clear demonstration of inclusivity at the core of a recruitment strategy and a great demonstration of ethics and leadership during the pandemic, which deserves recognition and sets a great example.

TALiNT International October 2021

Greene King is presented with the Early Careers Pioneer Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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Attraction Campaign of the Year L’Oreal delivered a candidate attraction campaign that demonstrated excellence and innovation in terms of design, execution and hiring impact. L’Oreal knew that making a predominantly female-heavy business, in a female-dominated industry, appear attractive to the external male population was going to be a challenging task. The TA team boosted awareness and generated over 500 applications from a multi-channel campaign that reached over 6.8 million profiles and resulted in over 25,000 clicks, with an average 90% video completion rate on Instagram. Using dynamic targeting on Instagram and Facebook, the TA team could accurately place the assets in front of active and passive candidates, generating both reach and engagement for the student population. This, coupled with on-site milkround activity, meant that their message was enhanced through student associations, word of mouth and digital activation. Judges praised L’Oreal for its success in getting the right message in front of the right people.

Judges said that L’Oréal wowed with their innovative, bold and brave approach that led to a memorable & effective campaign.

L’Oreal accepts the Attraction Campaign of the Year Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Partner: SMRS

TALiNT International October 2021

8 seconds. That’s all you’ve got. Can you attract the best? It’s vital to make every word count when hiring the talent to shape the future of your business. You have just 8 seconds to sell your story and inspire the most diverse, talented job seekers. And become the No 1 destination for their job applications.

The future of resourcing. It’s all about agility. 2020 has seen the World change. The technology needed to find the best people has changed too. “The Global economy has been significantly impacted over the last year and this has profound effects on how we find and hire the right people to survive and thrive in the future. Larger numbers looking for work, smaller resourcing teams, a turbulent economy and a major shift to virtual collaboration have changed the employment market beyond all recognition. To be successful in 2021 and beyond requires a new set of tools and a fresh approach to resourcing.” Andy Randall, CEO of eArcu. It might seem that, right now, finding people is easy. • Are they the right people? • Are they invested in your organisation? • Will they make a difference? • Or even stick around?

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The eArcu Candidate Experience Award McDonald’s was recognised as an employer who showed clear evidence of delivering a consistently good experience at every stage of the candidate journey. By moving to a direct hiring model and building an efficient in-house TA team, McDonald’s was able to attract top talent from diverse backgrounds. Making candidates feel reassured about McDonald’s in a troubled employment landscape was of paramount importance. Judges praised the TA team for making good use of video interviews, virtual check-ins and a dedicated channel for the new starters. The channel was used to connect new employees with each other, so they had the opportunity to talk to others going through the same experience as them – starting a new job in a pandemic. The team encouraged new starters to create postcards that shared information about themselves. These were posted on the Company Channel so that everyone was aware of who was joining the business and create a sense of belonging. In addition to IT equipment and a Welcome Pack being sent to new starter’s home addresses, a surprise McDonald’s breakfast was also sent to them via McDelivery on their first day.

Judges said: “In a time when recruitment and relationships have had to be managed online, McDonald’s delighted candidates and brought the human touch to a remote onboarding experience.”

McDonald’s accepts the eArcu Candidate Experience Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Excellence in Onboarding Award Essex County Council’s well-rounded approach to onboarding encompassed elements of training, networking and fostering culture which resulted in excellent feedback from new starters Essex County Council (ECC) is the second largest local authority in the UK with approximately 7,000 employees working across different localities throughout the county. ECC has been at the forefront of local authority transformation – leading the way on how the public sector responds to austerity and dramatic changes to public policy, while continuing to deliver outstanding services to 1.4 million residents. This challenge became even more prevalent in the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the overnight shift to virtual working. To deliver successfully to the organisation the talent acquisition team had to deliver consistent and robust talent management. New starters were offered an immersive onboarding experience through ECC’s dedicated My Onboarding platform (available before a candidate’s start date); a moderated online New Starter Community; and regular gamified virtual onboarding sessions - all offered until the end of the probation period.

Judges praised Essex County Council’s holistic approach to onboarding, encompassing elements of development, culture and importantly acting on feedback from new joiners to further refine the onboarding experience.

TALiNT International October 2021

Essex County Council accepts the Excellence in Onboarding Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

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Partner: SMRS

Best Use of Technology Award HSBC was praised for a very positive use of analytics that elevated the business impact and enabled a far more precise approach to talent acquisition through dashboarding HSBC’s Global Graduate Proposition (GGP) hires around 1,200 students annually onto global Internship and Graduate programmes across three global business lines within Digital Business Services while serving 17 geographies. HSBC generates large amounts of data - encompassing everything from media performance to ATS numbers, to vacancy demand - and created a dashboard to merge a range of datasets. Judges praised great communication with the other vendors to understand each data point as well as the end to end candidate journey. This resulted in dashboards that were built according to the client’s needs, ensuring they were more fit for purpose. The success of the implementation was measured by the positive impact this had on HSBC’s ability to report on their early careers pipeline globally whilst helping them to create a fairer and better experience for candidates all around the world.

The judges were impressed with how HSBC took on a project that leveraged technology to underpin and support human engagement.

HSBC & SMRS won the Best Use of Technology Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Partner: Blackbridge Communications

Partner: SMRS

TALiNT International October 2021

A process that's fair by design Fairness by design is at the heart of what we do. There’s a perfect role for every person, and creating opportunity means assessing for potential, not track record. Sova’s commitment to intelligent, ethically applied AI helps you to consistently make fair decisions that support more diverse hiring and progression. Find out more at sovaassessment.com

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The Sova Moving The Dial in Diversity & Inclusion Award The data-led Equality Project, 50:50, enabled the BBC to improve female representation and showed a positive approach to D&I that provided insight and drove change 50:50 The Equality Project is a grassroots, datadriven initiative created by content-makers for content-makers at the BBC. The brainchild of TV News presenter Ros Atkins, it started in 2017 in the BBC London newsroom. Its journalists wanted to prove that increasing women’s representation on their content was possible. In just a few months the model was proven and today more than 670 BBC content teams use data monitoring to improve representation, alongside a global network of more than 100 partners in 26 countries. 50:50’s main impact is in the recruitment of experts and contributors that the teams placed to create content. 50:50 has a New Voices database of over 2,000 potential contributors to support content-makers’ efforts, with 62% of BBC’s audiences and online users noticing a shift towards more women contributors. BBC was recognised for the commercial and cultural impact 50:50 had on diversity and inclusion over the last year.

BBC accepts the Sova Moving The Dial in Diversity & Inclusion Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

The judges were impressed with the BBC’s thought leadership in D&I, working not only internally, but also by engaging external partners in their mission.

TALiNT International October 2021

R et i n ue T S Ad

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The Retinue Talent Solutions TA Operational Achievement Award Serco’s agile and innovative approach to talent acquisition at the start of the pandemic resulted in shortened time-to-hire and a special focus on DE&I Serco provides public services in support of governments around the world, with half of its business conducted in the UK. Serco annually hires approximately 2,500 people across the country which includes recruitment into hospitals, contact centres, prisons and leisure centres. With five operational divisions and over 30,000 employees spread over 400 sites, the business is serviced by Serco’s 33-strong talent acquisition team. As the pandemic struck, Serco was faced with issues like sick leave creating gaps in front-line public service provisions that needed to be filled quickly. Demand exploded for staff to meet the increased need for hospital cleaners, facilities management, Track-and-Trace support and the setup of drive-in and mobile testing. This was made more difficult by the inability to interview in-person, driven by social distancing and hiring manager unavailability. Judges praised Serco’s innovative approach to hiring, which dramatically reduced time to hire, and exponentially improved the speed to value at a time when the country needed hospitals more than ever.

Judges praised Serco for their ability to react quickly and get positive results, the impressive reduction in time to hire, and the breadth of the roles they recruited for in challenging circumstances.

Serco accepts the Retinue Talent Solutions TA Operational Achievement Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

Partner: Blackbridge Communications

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Lorien Creativity in Talent Acquisition Award A new approach to apprenticeship recruitment enabled Greene King to improve diversity and quality while addressing skills shortages in hospitality Greene King’s aim is to build and maintain a people-focused business that is inclusive for all. As the pandemic hit last year, its leadership took a reduction in salary and introduced the Team Member Support Fund to help members who were furloughed. While Brexit has exacerbated a skills shortage in the hospitality sector, Greene King’s own industry research identified a need for 471,000 additional managers and 11,000 chefs by 2024. Labour turnover is often high in hospitality and businesses measure 90-day retention to gauge the performance. Greene King’s partnership with The Prince’s Trust had established two apprenticeship programmes but they felt there was more they could do to improve social mobility. Greene King revised its apprenticeship recruitment process by placing greater emphasis on attitude and enthusiasm while interviewing, rather than prior attainment - which resulted in more applications from disadvantaged postcode and those from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities.

Judges said Greene King showed that inclusivity is at the core of their recruitment strategy and showed ethics and leadership during the pandemic.

Greene King accept the Lorien Creativity in Talent Acquisition Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Highly Commended

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Horsefly Analytics Best Business Partnership Award

By building solid relationships internally, North Yorkshire County Council was able to recruit candidates for a very diverse array of roles North Yorkshire is a large, rural county with a location and size that makes it difficult to attract talent - with multiple sectors they need to recruit for, many of which are affected by national skills shortages including Social Workers, Teachers, Engineers and Care Workers. To increase applications and kep candidates engaged through the process, they harnessed technology in a new way to enable candidates to choose their preferred application route. The Council also adopted a multi-faceted application approach, using social media to portray positive messages about the contribution to the care sector; using #clapforcarers and personal stories that ‘speak’ to potential recruits. , Judges praised the Council for how it built sustainable relationships with their Service Managers and specialist teams to look at the bigger picture beyond the immediate vacancy to fill. It was also recognised for excellence in working collaboratively with talent acquisition and business leaders which delivered outstanding recruitment results.

North Yorkshire County Council accept the Best Business Partnership Award

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Judges praised the Council for demonstrating strong performance and partnership, showing impact and innovation as well as impressive results when recruiting an incredibly diverse range of roles.

TALiNT International October 2021

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The Best Recruitment Supplier Partnership Award Kraft Heinz were praised for their successful technology partnership with strategic and cultural direction that achieved impressive results The Kraft Heinz Company is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world - with eight $1 billion+ brands.

Kraft Heinz accepts the Best Recruitment Supplier Partnership Award

Observing that traditional recruitment processes are often biased, tedious for candidates and resulted in TA teams hiring the same types of profiles, Kraft Heinz decided to partner with Pymertics Inc, a gamified soft skills assessments company to find a better way. Through the partnership, they found new and innovative ways of testing and assessing applicants, and comparing with the performance of previous trainees, to predict the success of the candidate. With intensive diversity testing, and levelling the playing field in the application process, Kraft Heinz vastly expanded their talent pool and attracted more diverse candidates - which was highlighted in some impressive metrics.

Judges said Kraft Heinz was ahead with D&I acquisition and showed strong partnership alignment with strategic and cultural direction.

TIARA Talent Acquisition 2021 Finalists

Partner: Resource Solutions

Partner: Talentful

TALiNT International October 2021

Partner: Blackbridge Communications

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The TA Team of the Year Award Winning a hat trick of awards on the night, Greene King was recognised for their innovation and genuine concern for their talent during an incredibly difficult year The TA Team of the Year is the ultimate accolade in the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards, voted for by the entire judging panel.

Greene King accepts the TA Team of the Year Award from Lord Holmes.

Announcing this year’s overall winner, Lord Chris Holmes said: “The inaugural TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards was launched during the most challenging year imaginable, but the high standard of the entries was astounding and highlighted numerous examples of innovation and progress in talent acquisition. “The judges looked at a number of factors including: an ability to deliver innovation under pressure, a focus on D&I, social mobility and community engagement and, ultimately, an approach which has been empathetic to the year we have been through.” “Greene King ultimately showed a remarkable level of compassion, innovation and inclusivity in their business and are deserving winners of the very first TIARA Talent Acquisition Team of the Year award.”

Judges said: “In deciding this year’s TA Team of the Year Winner, we wanted to see a team who had moved the needle, raised standards and taken a risk. Greene King were chosen for their ability to deliver innovation under pressure, and their focus on social mobility and community engagement. After the last 18 months, we cannot ignore the human element, and Greene King approached their work in a genuine and authentic way and truly is a beacon for the industry.”

TALiNT International October 2021

72 Advertorial

Recruitment consultant goes from start-up to 7-figure sale The Recruit Venture Group backed GotPeople from the get go; just look how well it’s gone! When Mary Cox launched GotPeople in 2011 her aim was to build a recruitment business that would deliver a secure future. Now, just ten years later, she’s set to sail off into retirement having sold the company in a 7-figure deal. Mary had worked tirelessly for years in recruitment running desks for other businesses and decided in 2011 it was time to do it for herself. For some time, the fear of failing or not being able to meet the monthly bills had held Mary back from launching on her own and then in 2011 she discovered an investment partner in The Recruit Venture Group. “It was 7th February 2011. I took my business idea for a new recruitment consultancy to The Recruit Venture Group. It was quite possibly the best day of my life when I look back now”, says Mary, “I’m so thankful for The Recruit Venture Group. They provided the backing I needed which gave me the confidence and ability to go out on my own without the fear of financial restrictions or loss and we got trading with volume clients immediately”. GotPeople launched in late September 2011 and Mary produced a turnover of half a million in her

first eight months of trading. She pushed the figure up to £1.5 million in the next, her first full, year. Within four years GotPeople had a turnover of £4million per annum. Asked about the key to her business success Mary is forthright in her praise for The Recruit Venture Group. “If you’re a recruitment consultant, with the ambition to run your own consultancy, this is the way to do it. It gives the perfect mix of support and autonomy. It meant I could build my business quickly with full focus on what matters”. The rapid growth of turnover was, says Mary, generated because she could focus purely on recruitment, on the clients and candidates and forget all the back office and administration that would normally bog-down any new start-up. Mary is proud of GotPeople’s track record in generating not just turnover but, more importantly, healthy mark up, margins and gross profit. “They are the real keys to success”. Mary sees the support she’s had as a major factor in creating the right conditions for her and her team to drive the business forward. “You have to have the vision, and the drive”, she explains. “That’s why The Recruit Venture Group back you. But when they back you - they back

“GotPeople is a fantastic example of the success that can come from being a joint venture with us. Our culture is rooted in the cycle of create, invest, support, grow - and ultimately succeed. We specialise in recruitment companies because we’re experts in the sector.” Paul Mizen, Managing Director, The Recruit Venture Group

TALiNT International October 2021

“I’m so thankful for The Recruit Venture Group. They provided the backing I needed which gave me the confidence and ability to go out on my own without the fear of financial restrictions or loss and we got trading with volume clients immediately”.

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Mary Cox, Founder, GotPeople

you all the way”. Were there any major challenges along the way? “Of course”, she says, “we faced the ups and downs that any business faces, but we were able to deal with them, ride them out, because we had the support of The Recruit Venture Group, under the inspiring leadership of Paul Mizen”. Paul Mizen, Managing Director of The Recruit Venture Group, speaking on the same day said, “We are thrilled for Mary. GotPeople is a fantastic example of the success that can come from being a joint venture with us. Our culture is rooted in the cycle of create, invest, support, grow - and ultimately succeed. We specialise in recruitment companies because we’re experts in the sector. We’re there to enable. To encourage. To facilitate. And we’re there for our joint venture partners through the entire journey, helping them meet the daily challenges of running a business”. This last year of course has brought the unprecedented demands and challenges of Covid. “Even then”, adds Mary, “The Recruit Venture Group were there for us, as they have been throughout the whole journey. They have been instrumental in my success at every stage. Even my brand was created with their help and input”. And now Mary Cox is planning another journey. She will visit her children in South America as soon as it’s possible. With a new home on the coast, and plans to learn to sail, Mary Cox is living proof that, with support from The Recruit Venture Group, a successful recruitment business can deliver a secure future.

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Strike the right work-life balance In a competitive global marketplace, most leaders are under enormous pressure to keep performing at the highest level. Striking a happy medium between the two begins with effective staff management to free up time for other things. New technologies (like work management software https://indeedflex. co.uk) can streamline the process in a way that gives leaders more energy to dedicate towards their home lives. But what else can be done to encourage this? 5 Tips for a healthy Work-Life balance Things are very different compared to how they were before and many leaders are prioritising balance in their lives in the following ways: 1) You can’t be everything to everyone A good leader acknowledges their own limitations, understanding that they simply can’t be everything to everyone at home or at the office. They play to their strengths by delegating well, especially when a problem requires input beyond their own skill set. Acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers de-emphasises your ‘sole importance’ within the company, in turn promoting less personal stress and creating a more trusting team dynamic. 2) Manage your personal finances like the business does Businesses hire experts to take care of their finances, and the same principle applies to how leaders look after their money at home. Having a firm grip on this might require outside help, but getting started with a monthly budget is easy enough considering the various templates that are available online. Poor financial management leads to increased anxiety, can put a strain on personal relationships and impacts your mood - both at home and in the office - so it’s important to nip those issues in the bud by keeping on top of your finances. 3) Embrace technology for improved efficiency

TALiNT International October 2021

Leaders who didn’t grow up with tech devices readily available might be slightly averse to using them now. Although it takes discipline and patience to learn something new, technology can help to increase efficiency both at home and at the office. Many workplace technologies are great time savers. Meeting tools (like Skype and Zoom) will cut travel time out of your day. A new hire can be streamlined through a platform like Indeed Flex. Even just something as simple as a ‘concentration booster’ playlist on Spotify can improve your focus on days when there is a lot going on. 4) Prioritise sleep and schedule regular naps There are so many practical benefits of good sleep, like improved concentration, energy levels and overall mood. In a culture where I’ll sleep when I’m dead is a popular catchphrase, leaders tend to undervalue its power and the difference a short nap can make to boosting workplace productivity. A 30-minute nap during the second half of your lunch break can help you reset in an instant. Better yet, you’ll be setting a good example for your subordinates, who may even start thinking about their own work-life (and sleep) balance as a result. 5) Block out holiday from the start of the year For some, not taking leave is a badge of honour. Great leaders know the value of scheduling regular holidays, doing so by blocking out the periods they will be on leave and communicating them right from the start of a new year. These periods are non-negotiable offline periods where family time, rest and recovery take centre stage. Tell the team you trust that they will handle things until you get back and try to shut off completely.

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TALiNT International October 2021

76 TALiNT Talk

The Great Resignation? Here comes the Great Retention! As we come out of the pandemic, the economy has bounced back faster and stronger than anyone imagined and the number of jobs available are at record levels. ‘the great resignation?’ I’m not so sure.

In general, it is always wise to treat dramatic headlines or simple phrases with a large pinch of salt. My rule of thumb is this: does the person promoting the headline have an interest in it being true? If so, approach with caution. Likewise, any survey that takes ‘intent’ and translates it into ‘certainty’ should also be handled with care. For example, a statement that ‘60% of candidates intend to change jobs in the next six months’ does not mean that is what’s going to happen. For the last 10 years I have fully intended to lose 10kg and do a triathlon and yet both are but still unachieved! Which brings me to the ‘great resignation’. Despite the ubiquity of the phrase, it’s been surprisingly hard to find compelling evidence to support that it’s actually happening. Let’s look at the evidence in favour. As we come out of the pandemic, the economy has bounced back faster and stronger than anyone imagined and the number of jobs available are at record levels. It is also a fair assumption that there is an element of catch up from candidates who have wanted to change jobs since last year but were nervous about doing so. Another factor is that September is historically an active month for jobs changes. It is also increasingly understood that employers who refuse to consider more flexible working patterns or who appeared indifferent to the challenges of their employees during the pandemic may suffer some sort of backlash. But

TALiNT International October 2021

Ken Brotherston, Managing Director, TALiNT Partners

Let’s consider the other side of the argument. Many industries are still very challenged with employees terrified, not just about changing jobs in their sector, but about losing the one they have. There are still around one million workers about to come off furlough which will have some impact on re-dressing the imbalance in the labour market. And if we are to talk about the ‘great resignation’, we must also look to its equal and opposite force ‘the great retention.’ The vast majority of HR and TA people can not only read, but they can count and think and figure out that something needs to be done. Whether that’s increasing salaries (around 20% should do it) creating more flexible working patterns even for employees who are still required to be on site for 100% of their jobs, looking at innovative learning and development initiatives and so on and so on, they know they need to respond, and they are. So yes, we do have a truly unique labour market right now, and no, the mismatch between supply and demand won’t last forever. In the meantime there will be a higher degree of market movement than usual but ‘the great resignation?’ I don’t think so. Whilst the pandemic has changed many things, it hasn’t changed the fact that the best employers attract and retain the best talent but that doesn’t make much of a headline.

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TALiNT International October 2021

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